


Rose, Red

by SaltinesAndPeanutButter



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23546707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltinesAndPeanutButter/pseuds/SaltinesAndPeanutButter
Summary: My ladystuck 2020 assignment! It's for @seers on Tumblr! Here's your high school ararose AU! I hope you like it, this was so much fun to write!
Relationships: Rose Lalonde/Aradia Megido
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Ladystuck Art/Fic Exchange 2020





	Rose, Red

**Author's Note:**

> Just want to say again how much fun this prompt was!

Rose walked into her 3rd period biology class, noting the rowdy atmosphere. She sat down at an empty seat, waiting on the teacher to walk in. Across the room, a girl with brown eyes and long, wavy black hair caught her eyes. Her hair was dyed in deep red streaks, and she also wore lipstick and maybe mascara in the same shade? It was hard to tell from across the room. She was sitting next to a lanky, pale boy with short black hair and choppy bangs, chatting loudly and happily to him while he fiddled with a worksheet. 

The teacher walked in, instructing everyone to get into groups of three for a lab. Something about acid and raw beef. The two kids she noticed earlier continued to cling together, and Rose decided to approach them, but mostly just the girl. She took her psychology textbook with her, in case they decided to ignore her. 

"Hey!" said the girl. "Are you new? I don't think I've seen you before!" 

"Yes. I was homeschooled until now," Rose said, laying her textbook down on the nearest desk. 

"I'm Adison Muranaka, and this is Sam Cheong," she said, gesturing to the boy next to her, who momentarily looked up from his worksheet to wave hello. "You can be our third! But there's one condition: we gotta know your name." 

"That's fair," Rose found herself a bit nervous now, and intimidated by Adison's friendliness for a reason Rose didn't quite understand. "I'm Rose Lalonde." 

During the experiment, Adison seemed strangely, yet intriguingly, transfixed by the acid dissolving away the meat. 

"She's into dead stuff," Sam clarified. Later on Rose found out that the worksheet wasn't actually a worksheet at all - it was a plan for his bee colony he kept at home. "I am in the programming club though, which is probably what I should be more worried about," he admitted. Rose resigned to filling out the worksheet for the lab, full of bland, mundane questions like "What did the reaction between the acid and the beef remind you of?" Rose didn't really mind, since Adison was so into playing with the meat. 

Rose found herself sitting with Adison at lunch, and were halfway through lunch period when Rose noticed that Sam never joined them. 

"Where did Sam go?" 

"Oh, he's in the programming club. They don't have enough members, so they have to meet during lunch on Mondays instead of after school." 

"Ah," Rose replied, picking at her microwaved oatmeal she brought from home. It could have used some butter. 

"Something wrong?" 

"No, I was just wondering if you and Sam are a thing? Or if you were a thing?" 

Adison laughed and wiped a tear from her eye, and then wiped the mascara that rubbed on her finger from that onto the side of her lunch tray. Up close like this, Rose could tell that Adison's mascara _was_ the same deep red as her streaks and lipstick. 

"Nah, but we're both bi so it could happen. I understand why you would've thought that though. Why, do you have a crush on one of us? Or both of us? It's fine if you do," Adison explained casually. 

"I was just curious, that's all," Rose lied. Internally, she knew she wanted to see Adison, and that the reason she kept staring at her lips wasn't just because of the eye-catching lipstick. 

"Tell you what, Friday night you can come over to my place and we'll hang out for a little bit! Sam doesn't have to be there, if that's what you'd prefer." 

Rose was speechless. Her first day, and she'd already made a friend, and got a kind-of date. Weren't people at public school supposed to be mean to people like Rose? People who wore black lipstick, combat boots, and spiked jewelry? _Well, Adison doesn't really seem like a jock_ , Rose thought to herself. 

"I live in the first double-wide right off Murray Road," said Adison while scribbling her address on a scrap of paper from her notebook. In the corner of the scrap, Rose could see half of a doodle of a mouse skull. Adison handed the scrap to Rose with a cheerful "Here ya go!" Before Rose could ask what time she should come, lunch was over and they both had to depart to their separate 4th periods. For Rose, Geometry. For Adison, American History. 

* * *

Rose stood in her room, agonizing over what to wear. When she got home from school today, her mom was already passed out drunk on the couch, martini glass shattered on the floor. _Whatever_ , Rose thought. She wouldn't let her mom's alcoholism ruin her kind-of-date. Adison didn't seem to care what others thought of her, Rose remembered. She remembered the outfit Adison had worn at school on Wednesday, a long, black skirt with holes cut out and a red polo shirt. Adison didn't care what Rose was wearing. Rose finally settled on an outfit, and bounded down the stairs to meet Adison on Murray Road, scrap of paper with half of doodle of a mouse skull in hand. 

It was a surprisingly fast walk. Eventually she was able to see Adison sitting on the banister of her double-wide's porch. She waved to Rose, and jumped off the banister into the yard. Rose waved back. 

"Hey Rose! I'd love to invite you in, but my older sister is being moody today. Her boyfriend, Rufio, cheated on her. So it'd be best for us to stay outside for a little bit," Adison elucidated. 

"Okay," Rose agreed, even thought she was never much of an outside girl. Adison beckoned for Rose to follow her, and they began to walk around the neighborhood. 

"Do you spend a lot of time walking around like this?" 

"Yeah. My sister is usually pretty grumpy, so I like to give her some space. I usually do my homework on the porch and walk around here, at least until nightfall." 

"That's...interesting," Rose replied. _But how different is this from living off of microwave food because my mom is an alcoholic_ , Rose wondered. If anything, this might be preferable. 

Suddenly, Adison began running towards someone's chain link fence. 

"Hey! Wait up!" Rose called, noting how out of shape she was. 

"Sorry! It's just that I think the ants have finally cleaned off this vulture skull! I haven't checked it in a while!" 

"Huh?!" 

Adison expertly jumped over the fence, her skirt gliding over it without getting caught. Rose tried to climb, trying to use the treads of her combat boots to her advantage. Thankfully, Adison noticed her plight and helped her over. 

"Who lives here?" 

"Nobody. They moved out three or four years ago, and nobody's lived here since," Adison said while wading through the tall grass. She parted the grass in front of her, and motioned for Rose to join her. 

"Whoa," Rose said in awe of the clean skull, with not a bit of muscle or feather left. 

"It's finally clean!" Adison exclaimed. She picked it up by the eye sockets, and headed back towards the fence. She gently tossed it over, and jumped the fence herself. She then helped Rose climb the fence again. 

"Isn't the bacteria on that harmful?" asked Rose. 

"No, I've been collecting skulls for a few years now and I've never gotten sick. I wash them and cover them in Modge Podge and everything." 

_The fascination with acid and raw beef seems tame compared to this_ , thought Rose. 

"Would you be ok with going inside now? We'll have to deal with my sister if we disturb her, but I really want to wash off this skull!" 

"I'm fine with taking that risk," Rose agreed with a smile. Adison smiled back. 

Once inside, Adison got a big Sterilite container from the cupboard and filled it with hot water, adding in some Dawn dish soap. She brought it to her room with Rose in tow. She submerged the skull in the soapy water. 

"I forgot the scrub brush! Ugh...just wait here a minute, Rose," she said before taking off to find the scrub brush. 

Adison and Rose sat in Adison's room for a while, Rose on the bed and Adison on the floor, gently scrubbing at the skull. Soapy water splashed onto the hardwood floor. They would clean it up later, they both agreed. 

"Now I just need to let it soak. What do you wanna do now? Do you wanna see my makeup?" 

"Sure," Rose answered, thinking she would show Adison her own collection of black lipsticks and otherwise goth makeup sometime. Adison pulled out her lipsticks and mascaras (it seemed like those were the only two makeup items she owned), all drugstore brands, but Adison made it work so well that Rose barely noticed. 

"Do you want to try on this lipstick? I haven't opened it yet," Adison asked. 

"Sure." 

Adison uncapped the lipstick, and while she was wiping off Rose's signature black lipstick with a makeup wipe she noticed the Christmas lights strung around the room, and the collection of skulls that were hanging on the wall. The skulls ranged in size from as tiny as a mouse skull to as large as a deer skull, antlers and all. 

"Don't worry, I found them when they were already dead," reassured Adison. "This is kind of a rural area, in case you haven't noticed," Adison dabbed Rose's lips a few more times, and finally began to apply the red lipstick. 

"It looks really good on you! You should wear red more often," Adison complimented. 

"Mhmm," Rose agreed, looking in the mirror, then staring at Adison's own red lips. 

Adison's face relaxed into a tender smile. "You're really transparent, you know." 

"What?" Rose asked, nervous. 

"I've known you liked me since you were staring at my lips at lunch on Monday. It's fine, really. You're really cute, actually." 

Adison leaned in close. "Can I kiss you?" 

"Yes." 

Adison pressed her lips against Rose's. Rose closed her eyes, the Christmas lights and skulls on the wall fading into black.


End file.
